Framed
by DoubleTrouble96
Summary: High school AU. Six students who never met are blamed for something they didn't do. How will they clear their names? And what sort of bonds will form along the way? Pairings: Clintasha, Pepperony, Science Bros. Story is better than the summary!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my very first Avengers/Clintasha story, so go a little easy on me! It's also my first AU. Normally, I don't like AU's that much, but this idea got in my head and wouldn't go away! Anyways, enjoy!**

Principal Fury was at his desk when he got a call about graffiti on the second floor stairwell of SHIELD High School. He let out an annoyed sigh. When would these damn kids ever learn? He stood up and walked over to the location of the vandalism to see a rather crude message written in what appeared to be lab chemicals. He shook his head. He already knew one of the culprits. What surprised him was whom the rest of them appeared to be.

"We can't tell for sure if it was them, but all of the evidence fits," Miss Hill, the Vice Principal, said.

Fury scowled. How was it that some of his best students had done this? "Call for all of them and send them to my office. I'd like to speak to them all personally."

Ten minutes later, six teenagers were sitting outside of Principal Fury's office. They had seen each other before, but were not very well acquainted. A boy with short, sandy blonde hair sat in one of the chairs, looking slightly nervous. Clint Barton and the principal we're not exactly close, but they were on good terms with one another. Why was he in trouble?

He looked around at the others sitting with him. A tall, muscular boy with an American flag pinned to his knapsack was shifting around, looking very nervous. He recognized him from the school's football team. He was the captain and was referred to as such by many of his classmates. His name was Stan, right? Or was it Sean? He was famous for being a goody two-shoes. What the hell could he have done?

He shifted his gaze towards another figure and almost rolled his eyes. Sitting next to Clint was a dark-haired boy, leaning back in his chair and almost looking proud of himself. Ah, the infamous Tony Stark. Why was he not surprised? Of course he would have something to do with this. Tony caught his stare and smirked, giving him a small wave. Clint returned it with a nod of acknowledgement.

The boy sitting next to Tony could hardly even be considered a boy – god was more like it. He was at least 6'5 and every last inch of him was muscular. His golden hair went past his shoulders and his voice was loud and booming. Clint knew that Thor Odinson had come from a place called Asgard with his adopted brother, Loki, but that was about it. He wondered why he was here. He didn't seem like the kind of guy to get into a lot of trouble.

Clint looked between the last two people. One was a curly haired boy with glasses. He didn't recognize him. He was almost as nervous as Stew (Spencer?) and made himself busy by flipping through a science textbook. He noticed Clint staring and gave him a shy smile. He smiled back. He seemed pretty nice. Smart too. Maybe Fury was giving him a scholarship or something.

His gaze rested on the only girl in the room. He had seen her before. She was very pretty, he'd give her that, but she was very…different. She always sat alone at lunch. He had seen a couple of girls try to sit with her once, but she politely refused their offer. She was very quiet and kept to herself most of the time. She never tried to make any friends.

The sound of a door opening snapped him out of his thoughts. "Principal Fury will see you now," Miss Hill said.

"Now," Principal Fury said, his voice low and threatening. "Do you all know why you're in here?"

After a long pause, Tony spoke up. "Normally, I would, but I was very good this week. I went three whole days without an incident and everything."

Fury rolled his eyes. "I've expected this from you, Stark, but as for the rest of you?"

"Um…Principal Fury?" Stanly asked quietly. "I'm sorry, but what exactly did we do?"

"You're telling me," he said, slamming a photo on his desk, "/this/ doesn't look familiar?"

He picked up the photo of the graffiti. "Principal Fury sucks…" he blushed, too embarrassed to finish the sentence.

"I know it was you six. Why you all had gotten together to do it still remains a mystery to me."

"With all due respect, Principal Fury," Tony said, not changing his sarcastic tone, "how do you even know it was us?"

"It was quite simple," Fury replied. "When we opened the door to the stairwell, we heard people running. We couldn't see who was running, but we did manage to find one of Steve's American flag pins, Thor's watch with Asardian numbers, Clint's backpack, and Natasha's necklace."

"So that's his name!" Clint thought to himself.

"What about me and Four Eyes over here?" Tony demanded.

The boy with the glasses looked down at his sneakers, slightly offended at Tony's comment.

"You two are here because this was written with some sort of chemical dye. Bruce knows about these the best. And you're here, Mr. Stark, because you are also quite talented with science and this is exactly the type of thing that you would do."

"But I didn't!" Tony insisted.

"I'm sorry, but this all of the evidence is pointing to you."

Tony looked at the ground, mumbling "Evidence my ass."

"Excuse me, Principal Fury," Natasha said quietly. Her voice was a lot lower than Clint had imagined. It wasn't soft or shy or sweet like he thought it would be. No, it was low and filled with confidence, even at such a quiet level. It was kind of sexy to him. "Do you still have my necklace?"

Fury opened his desk drawer and took out a golden chain with a spider on the end of it. The spider had a red gem in the middle.

"Thank you," she said, putting on her necklace.

Fury closed the desk drawer. "Now, I suggest the six of you get more acquainted with each other than you already are, because you're going to be spending quite a bit of time together. Every day after school, you will have detention for an hour. During that time, I will randomly pick two of you to clean the school, starting today. Mr. Stark and Mr. Banner, you two are going to clean up the graffiti on the wall – don't give me that look, Tony. You and Bruce know the most about chemicals. You should have it cleaned up quite easily. The rest of you are going to be in room 206 from three to four. Mr. Coulson will be in the hallway in case any of you try to leave earlier, so don't get any ideas."

Clint gave an annoyed sigh. "Principal Fury, I have honestly no idea how my bag got there. I lost it a few days ago."

"Well somehow, it ended up there. Since I can't think of anyone else who would put it there, I have no choice but to believe that you did it."

Thor grabbed his watch and put it back on, saying nothing. There was one person he could think of, but he refused to give him up like that. Besides, what did he have against the other people in the room?

It was already 3:15 and none of the four people in the room had said one word to each other. Steve was absentmindedly staring at the clock, drumming his fingers on the desk. Thor was barely able to fit in his desk and kept trying to adjust himself to a more comfortable position. Natasha was in the back of the classroom, reading a book. She sat perfectly still. The only time she ever moved was to turn a page or brush a strand of hair out of her face.

And Clint…Clint was staring at Natasha. He couldn't help himself. She was attractive, but that wasn't the only reason why he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. She was intriguing. Yes, she seemed very weird, but she was alluring at the same time. Her presence made people notice, but she never asked for the attention. There was something about her that made Clint want to talk to her.

Natasha tried to concentrate on her book, but couldn't. She could feel someone's eyes on her. Giving up, she looked up and saw a pair of gray eyes transfixed on her. She let out a small sigh. She was used to people staring at her. She knew everyone thought she was a little strange, but she didn't care. The last thing she wanted was to be her school's definition of "normal" – always being bright and happy and willing to socialize with everyone. She'd much rather stay at home with a cup of tea and a book than go out partying. But the stares drove her crazy. Couldn't anyone just leave her alone and mind their own damn business?

"What?" she asked slightly annoyed.

Clint quickly looked away, muttering an apology.

Tony and Bruce were in the second floor stairwell, staring at the graffiti. Each of them had a sponge and bucket in their hands and went to work. They sooner they got started, the sooner they could leave.

After ten minutes of scrubbing the wall in silence, Bruce finally spoke up. "So how did you get the chemicals?"

Tony looked over to the boy with glasses. "What are you talking about?"

"All of the chemicals are kept in a storage locker in the science department. It's always locked. How did you get them?"

"I'm telling you, I didn't do it," Tony insisted.

"Are you sure?" Bruce asked, wiping some soap off of his jeans. "No offense, but this kind of seems like something you would do."

"None taken. I would've put something more creative. Whoever did this was an amateur."

"Well, if you didn't do it, and I didn't do it, who did?"

Tony stopped scrubbing and thought for a minute. "Well it definitely wasn't Rogers. He's too much of a goody-goody."

"Rogers?"

"Steve, the blonde kid with the flags."

Bruce nodded in agreement. "I don't think it was Thor. He seems kind of clueless. He wouldn't try to get the rest of us in trouble."

"That was what I was wondering. Why was all of our stuff there? I mean, I understand completely if someone wanted to frame me, it would be too easy, but why the rest of you guys? Steve doesn't have a problem with anyone, Thor's Thor, and you seem like too good of a guy to do this."

Bruce gave him a small smile. "Thank, but I'm not exactly a good guy all the time."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "I find that hard to believe, but whatever you say. What about the other guy and the girl?"

"Do they even know each other?"

"It didn't seem like it," Tony thought for a minute. "Do you think it was Clint and he stole their stuff?"

Bruce shrugged. "It's possible, but he doesn't really seem like the kind of guy to do that."

"He was looking kind of shifty-eyed. He kept staring at all of us."

A couple minutes later, the two had finally gotten all of the dye off of the wall.

"Nice job," Tony said, giving Bruce a high-five. He seemed alright – a little shy, but a nice guy.

Natasha looked up from her book and glanced at the clock. She let out a small sigh. Ten minutes left. She was stuck in this room for ten more minutes with an awkward, nervous patriot, a guy who made it sound like there was a thunderstorm every time he moved in his seat, and a guy who kept staring at her.

She had recognized the one who stared at her. His name was Clint Barton. She remembered him as the quiet boy in the cafeteria who stared at everyone. She couldn't really call it staring though. It was more like observing. Suddenly, he stood up and walked over to her. He sat in the chair next to her.

"What are you reading?" he asked.

"Why are you talking to me?" Nobody ever talked to her. What did he want?

He shrugged. "Just figured we're going to be stuck with each other for a while so we might as well try to get along," What was her problem? He was just trying to be nice.

"Then why aren't you talking to Steve or Thor?" she asked, gesturing to the two boys in the front of the room, watching their conversation and looking rather uncomfortable.

"No, that's alright," Steve said shyly. "You two can keep talking."

Clint smiled. "Well, that's why," He held out his hand. "I'm Clint, by the way. Clint Barton."

Natasha stared at his hand. "I know."

"And you're Natasha…"

"Romanoff," she said. "Natasha Romanoff."

Clint let his hand fall back to his side, seeing that she wasn't going to shake it. He had been studying her for almost an hour and still couldn't quite get a read on her. Normally, he could tell almost exactly what a person was like within a few seconds of watching them. For all he knew, she was the one who spray-painted the wall and was framing the rest of them. "So how did your necklace get there anyway?"

"How did your backpack get there?" she countered, staring him down. She was suspicious of him. She was usually able to get a good idea of someone's personality by observing them, but this boy still remained a mystery to her.

He matched her stare. "Excellent question. If only I knew."

As the two of them were waiting for the other to break, Bruce and Tony came in.

"Alright, which one of you did it?" Tony asked, looking directly at Clint and Natasha, interrupting them from their staring contest.

"It wasn't me," Clint responded calmly. He knew he was innocent and had no reason to panic or get angry.

Tony turned to Natasha. "What about you?"

"If I were to do something like that, I wouldn't leave any evidence behind. I'm not stupid," she explained with the same calmness Clint had.

"Then how did your backpack and your necklace get there?" Bruce asked.

"How did Steve's pin and Thor's watch get there? They're just as much of suspects as we are. And I still haven't ruled you two out either," Clint retaliated.

"Trust me, if I did it, I wouldn't be trying so hard to say I didn't," Tony said with a smirk. "Besides, Bruce and Steve are too big of goody-goodies to do anything like this and I seriously doubt Thor knows anything about chemicals."

Thor nodded. "He is correct. I know nothing about these strange dyes used to insult our principal."

Tony turned back to the two sitting next to each other. "So that leaves you two."

Natasha glared. "Why the hell would you even think I would do something like this?"

He shrugged. "Because you're a quiet, anti-social recluse. That leaves you with three options: Internet addict, pot smoker, or someone who vandalizes public property."

She clenched her hands into fists. "I am none of those and I didn't do it."

"I'm just saying it's possible."

"Possible, but untrue. And what about him?" she asked, gesturing towards Clint.

Tony thought for a minute. "Still a possibility."

It was Clint's turn to get angry. "I'm telling you, I didn't do it."

"Well if you didn't do it, and she didn't do it, and none of us did it, then who did?" Bruce asked.

"I may have an idea," Thor said quietly.

"Who?"

"My brother."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you guys so much for the reviews! I haven't written anything in a while, so I'm a little rusty. Please feel free to give me some constructive criticism or suggestions of what you want to see in future chapters. I could use the ideas! Hope you guys like this chapter!**

"Your brother?" Tony asked, surprised.

Thor nodded. His brother had a knack for causing trouble. It was definitely possible that Loki did it and as framing all of them. He would have to talk to him when he got home.

"Why would your brother blame all of us?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know. I will have to confront him."

"Ok, so Hercules will talk to his brother and the rest of us will find a way to prove he did it," Tony said.

"We don't know for sure it was him yet," Steve piped in. He didn't want someone else to be blamed unjustly.

"I will ask him," Thor said.

"Are you sure he would tell you?" Bruce asked.

Thor nodded. "Loki would tell me."

The door opened and Mr. Coulson stuck his head inside, informing the group that they could all leave.

Clint walked outside the school and saw a glimpse of red hair turn a corner. He smiled and walked a little faster to catch up with her. Natasha turned her head to adjust the strap of her bag and saw him walking towards her. "What now?" she asked when he caught up to her.

"What? I go this way too," Clint responded, walking next to her.

She raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't mean you have to walk with me."

He shrugged. "I'm not. I'm just walking next to you."

The two walked in silence for a few minutes, the sound of cars honking their horns and New Yorkers yelling at each other filling their ears.

"So do you live nearby?" Clint asked, breaking the silence.

She shook her head. "I take the subway."

"Cool. So do I. Where do you get off?"

"You know, it's a little creepy to ask me where I live."

Clint chuckled. Who knew she had a sense of humor. "Just wondering."

They boarded the subway. Natasha sat in one of the seats and Clint sat right next to her. She looked at him with confusion.

"What?" he asked, noticing her expression.

"Why are you sitting next to me?" She was never one for beating around the bush.

He smiled and shrugged. "We got on together, we go to the same school, we just spent an hour together…"

"We're not friends," Natasha said as she opened her bag and took out her homework.

"I never said we were."

She opened her textbook and started copying math problems onto a piece of loose-leaf.

"Who's your math teacher?"

"Why do you care?"

"I'm just trying to make small talk."

"I don't do small talk."

Clint sighed, annoyed. He was just trying to be nice. It wasn't like she had any other friends.

After a few minutes, the train slowed and Natasha stood up. "This is my stop."

"I'll see you tomorrow then."

She left without a response.

Clint got off the train two stops after Natasha and walked to his apartment building. He took the elevator up to the fourth floor and went into apartment 4A. It was a relatively small apartment, having a kitchen attached to a den, a bathroom, and two bedrooms. Clint put his backpack on the table and sat next to his brother, who was currently playing videogames.

"Found your bag?" the younger brother asked, his eyes not leaving the screen.

Clint nodded. "Yeah."

"Where was it?"

Clint hesitated, wondering if he should tell his brother. "Someone else found it and brought it to the lost and found. Did Dad come home yet?"

"Yeah, he left a couple minutes ago. He was wondering where you were."

"I was at school."

"Which ended two hours ago."

Clint sighed. "Fine, promise you won't tell Dad?"

He shrugged. "Whatever."

"I kind of had detention."

"For what?"

"Fury thinks I spray painted the wall by the stairs."

"Did you?"

"Of course not."

"Then why does he think it's you?" He grunted and made a face when an enemy soldier shot his character.

"Because some asshat put my bag there."

"Who put your bag there?"

"No idea, but a bunch of other people's stuff was there too."

Just when his brother was about to respond, the door swung open. "Clinton Francis Barton!" a voice roared.

Clint slumped down on the couch, trying to make himself smaller.

"Why the hell weren't you home on time?"

"Sorry, Dad," Clint mumbled.

Clint's dad shook his head and sighed. "Out shooting up drugs again?"

"I've never even done that!"

"Dad, it's fine!" his brother jumped in. "He was just at school!"

"Stay out of this, Barney!"

Barney fell silent.

"You are nothing but a disgrace. I turn my back for ten seconds and you're out doing God knows what! What would your mother say about this?"

Clint didn't respond. He stormed into the room he shared with Barney and slammed the door shut. He grabbed his slingshot, opened the window and climbed out onto the fire escape. He needed to walk around and clear his head for a little while.

Thor looked up from his homework as his adopted brother walked in the door. "Where have you been?"

"Out," Loki responded, not looking at him.

Thor looked at Loki's hands. There was still a little bit of red on them. "So it was you?"

Loki smirked. "Who else?"

"Why did you blame me?"

"There was no way I was going to get caught. I didn't have an alibi, so blaming someone else was the easiest option."

Thor gave him a confused look. "Then why the others?"

Loki shrugged. "I saw things on the ground and I put them there."

"Loki, this is serious. Do you have any idea how much trouble I'm in because of this? If they find out it was you, you could be expelled."

"That's why they won't find out."

Thor sighed. "I have to tell the truth."

"They won't believe you anyway. They have no reason to."

"Then I'm telling the others."

Loki chuckled and sat down on the couch. "What good will that do?"

"We'll find a way to expose the truth."

"Good luck with that," This wasn't the first time Loki had gotten into trouble and it certainly wouldn't be the last. He wouldn't get caught. He never does. Having a couple of people upset with him wouldn't make a difference. He turned on the TV and smiled to himself. He was going to be just fine.

Clint wasn't sure how long he had been walking for. It could've been minutes. It could've been hours. It made no difference to him. He only turned to go home when he looked up and saw that the sky was dark. He didn't quite know where he was, but he knew how to get home. His sense of direction never failed him.

He didn't stop until he absentmindedly looked into a window and did a double take. Inside of the building was a karate dojo and a group of black belts standing in a circle, but that wasn't what had caught his attention. What made him stop in his tracks was a girl with fiery red hair, taking down a boy almost twice her size. A girl in the circle immediately charged at her, but soon went down as well. Clint smiled. He certainly didn't expect Natasha to be such a kickass.

Natasha looked up and saw Clint staring at her. What the hell was he doing there?

Clint gave her a small wave.

"Go away," she mouthed.

Some of the other boys turned to see what had the usually focused Natasha so distracted and started laughing.

"That your boyfriend, Romanoff?" one of them asked.

"No," she snapped and proceeded to fight off another black belt.

Clint walked away, still smiling. He was definitely going to make an effort to stop by Natasha's karate classes more often.

The next day, Steve, Tony and Bruce were in the detention room at three, waiting for the others to come in.

"So do you think it was him?" Tony asked, leaning back in his chair and resting his feet on the desk.

Bruce shrugged, knowing whom he was referring to. "It could be."

"I don't think it's safe to assume anything until we have more information," Steve said quietly.

"We're not assuming," Tony said, turning to look at the blonde. "We're wondering."

Steve looked at his hands in his lap.

"Well, he is anyway, I'm assuming it was him."

"Well we don't know for sure yet," Bruce said.

The door opened and Natasha walked in, sitting at the desk she sat in the day before.

"How's it going, Red?" Tony asked with a grin.

Natasha rolled her eyes and took out her book. She only looked up to glare at Clint when he came in.

"Hey guys," Clint said and took a seat next to Natasha.

She immediately got up and moved.

"Ooh! Rejected!" Tony said, giving Clint a smirk.

Clint rolled his eyes. "Just trying to be nice," he mumbled.

"Ok, back to Loki. Do you guys think he did it?"

Natasha shrugged, not looking up from her book. "It's possible."

"So is that a yes or a no?"

"It isn't anything."

"None of us can have a definite answer, Tony," Clint said.

Tony sighed and closed his eyes. He understood why they were so hesitant to automatically say whether or not someone did it, but he wanted to know where everyone stood on the subject.

Thor walked in and sat down, not looking at anybody. He couldn't believe it. His own brother was framing him.

"So?" Tony asked.

Thor nodded. "It was my brother."

Natasha closed her book and looked up, paying full attention. "Why?"

He shrugged. "My brother enjoys getting himself into trouble."

"Then why did he blame us?"

"He's not very fond of getting out of trouble."

"So he blamed you," Clint said.

"Exactly."

Something wasn't adding up. "What about the rest of us?" Steve asked. "We didn't do anything to him."

Thor shrugged again. "He said he just grabbed whatever belongings he could find that weren't his and put them by the stairs."

Natasha instinctively reached for her necklace, holding onto the spider protectively.

"Then I guess there's only one thing to do," Tony said, sitting up.

"What's that?" Bruce asked.

"We have to find away to get Loki caught."

**A/N: I am so sorry this took so long! I was really busy with schoolwork and stuff and haven't had a lot of time to work on this! I hope you guys like it and I'm always open to suggestions and criticism so feel free to spam the reviews with any ideas and comments! Hopefully, the next chapter will go up a lot faster than this one!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I am SO sorry for the wait! I had so much going on and then the hurricane happened and then I had tests to study for and I just couldn't find enough time to write this! But it's here now and I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for all of the awesome reviews! I have a general idea of where this story's going, but I could always use suggestions! Hope you guys like this chapter!**

"So that's the plan," Tony said to the other five people in the room.

"Are you sure it will work?" Clint asked.

"Of course it will."

"It just seems kind of…" Steve said, shifting uncomfortably, "wrong."

"What's your point, Cap? He did worse to us."

Before Steve could object, Coulson came in the room. "Alright, two of you need to come with me. Tony and Bruce are exempted because they did it yesterday. Any volunteers?"

Natasha stood up and put her book in her bag. "I'll go."

Clint smiled and immediately stood up. "I'll go too."

She sighed and walked out of the room. Clint followed her, still smiling. Maybe he could finally get her to talk to him.

The two were assigned to clean up all of the hallways and the cafeteria. Natasha frowned upon seeing just how much they had to clean up. "How much garbage do these people leave?" she muttered to herself.

Clint sighed and grabbed two mops and garbage bags out of the janitors' closet. "Let's just get this over with."

The two worked in silence for most of the time, each of them cleaning their own ends of the hallway and slowly working their way up to the middle. The only noise either one of them made since they started was a groan from Clint when he saw just how much garbage was in the cafeteria.

Natasha started to clean up the garbage on the ground while Clint got the gum off of the undersides of the tables. Clint could easily name at least seventy things that were better than this, getting his leg eaten by a dragon being number forty-one. But being alone in a room with a hot, kickass Russian girl seemed to make the situation better – even if she did hate him.

"I didn't know you did karate," he said out of the blue, laughing as Natasha jumped in surprise.

"Why would you know in the first place?" she asked.

"Well, I guess I wouldn't, but it's still pretty cool."

She shrugged.

Another moment of silence followed before he tried again. "You know, I used to do karate too. I got pretty far, but my dad made me stop when money got tight."

She didn't respond.

"But I still do archery, which is a lot of fun. Can't bring a bow and arrow everywhere, though, so I just carry around a slingshot," he said, taking it out of his back pocket.

"Why were you there?" she finally asked.

"Huh?"

"Why were you outside the window of my class?"

He smiled and shrugged. At least she was talking. "I was just walking and happened to pass by. I didn't know you were there. I was just looking through the window and saw you."

"Yeah, well now nobody there will leave me alone about it."

"What do you mean?"

She scowled and turned away.

Clint grinned, seeing a small blush on her cheeks. "What, do they think I'm your boyfriend or something?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, they do. And I would greatly appreciate it if you don't watch my classes."

He shrugged, still smiling. "Look on the bright side. They probably think you have great taste in guys."

She rolled her eyes and walked over to the other side of the cafeteria, muttering "jackass" under her breath.

He laughed.

The other four framed culprits were still in the detention room. Tony looked at the clock. Only another fifteen minutes. He could do this. He could…he couldn't. He sighed and tool out his phone to send a text message.

"Mr. Coulson said no phones," Steve said quietly.

He shrugged. "Oh well."

A couple of minutes later, Bruce came up behind him. "Who are you texting?"

"My girlfriend."

"Who's your girlfriend?"

"You know that blonde girl who sits at the front of our chem class?"

"Virginia Potts?"

He smiled. "Yup, that's her. But she likes to go by Pepper," Tony looked at his phone and saw he got a reply.

'What did you do this time?'

He typed up a reply. 'Nothing. Honestly, I didn't even do anything.'

'Why do I find that hard to believe?'

'Aw come on! You know you love me babe!'

'Don't be an asshole.'

'Sorry.'

"How'd you get her to go out with you?" Bruce asked shyly.

Tony laughed. "Trying to steal my girl?"

"No! No! That's not it! I just…um…"

He laughed again. "Easy! I'm just kidding! We actually went to middle school together. We were friends then too. She tried to hide it, but I knew she had a crush on me. So I asked her out and she said yes."

"Really?"

"Ok, it took about eight or nine rejections for her to give in."

Bruce let out a small laugh.

Tony's phone buzzed with another reply.

'Whatever it is this time, just please don't drag me into it.'

'I promise I won't.'

Thor looked over Tony's shoulder. He wasn't interested in the texts so much as the phone itself. "You just…touch the screen?"

"Um, yeah. Just like this," Tony said, touching the screen and opening an app.

"May I see it?"

"Sure," Tony handed Thor his phone.

Thor played with the phone, completely mesmerized. "We do not have technology like this in Asgard."

"This one was actually made by my dad."

"Your dad runs Stark Industries?" Bruce asked in awe.

Before Tony could answer, two more people entered the room, neither one looking happy.

"Look, I don't see why it's such a big deal."

"You embarrassed me in front of my entire class!"

"I was just watching!"

"And I'm not hearing the end of it!"

The other four watched Clint and Natasha argue, each with a confused expression on their face.

"Do I even want to know?" Tony asked.

"No," Natasha snapped before sitting at a desk far away from Clint.

"Come on, it wasn't that bad," Clint sat down next to her.

She stood up to move. "It was creepy and uncomfortable."

"Aw, do I make you uncomfortable?" He gave her his best puppy dog eyes.

"Yes."

"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Tony asked.

"She's just mad because I was going for a walk and saw her taking a karate class," Clint explained.

"You might as well be stalking me!" Natasha said, moving to another desk.

"I didn't know you'd be there! I was just walking!"

"You do karate?" Steve asked Natasha.

"She kicks ass," Clint said with a grin.

Natasha glared at him. "And, if I ever see you there again, I'll be sure to kick yours."

"How exactly did he embarrass you?" Steve asked, trying to calm everybody down.

Natasha scowled and made herself busy by searching through her bag for nothing in particular. Her cheeks turned a light pink. "That's none of your business."

He turned to Clint, who smirked. "They think I'm her boyfriend."

Tony chuckled, amused at the whole situation.

"It's not funny!" Natasha snapped. "Nobody there is taking me seriously anymore!"

Clint couldn't help but smile. "It can't be that bad."

She glared and stood up with a fist raised, but, before a fight could break out, Mr. Coulson came in and told them they could leave.

The six of them walked to the front steps of the school. Outside was a stretch limo.

"That would be my ride," Tony said, starting to walk. "So you guys know the plan, right?"

They all responded affirmatively.

"Good," He got in the limo. "See you guys tomorrow."

Bruce was picked up by his mother and Steve took his bike home. Thor's father came in an old-fashioned car and picked him up as well. Natasha started to walk to the subway station. "Don't even think about talking to me," she said without having to turn around to know Clint was going to try to walk with her again.

He shrugged, but stayed by her side. "Fine."

They went to the station in silence and got on the train. Clint sat next to her again. "What?" he asked, seeing her glare at him. "You said I couldn't talk to you, not sit next to you."

She sighed in annoyance.

That was enough for Clint. "Look, is there any specific reason you don't like me? Because I've been trying to be nice to you for the past two days and you're practically trying to kill me for it. I said I was sorry for embarrassing you in front of your class. I didn't mean to. I didn't even know you would be there. I was just walking around. And, even before that, you acted like I was Satan or something. So I just want to know why you hate me so much."

Her expression softened, but she still kept her glare. "I never asked you to be nice to me."

"Well sorry for trying to be a decent human being!"

She looked away, absentmindedly playing with her necklace.

"You don't realize it, but there are people who try to be friends with you. Every day, I see you alone at lunch and sometimes, people try to sit with you and you push them away. You never even give them a chance."

She didn't answer.

"You're never going to have any friends if you keep pushing everyone away. I'm not saying we have to be best friends, but, if we're going to be stuck with each other every day after school for the rest of the month, I'd at least like us to be on speaking terms."

The train came to a halt. The doors opened and Natasha got off without a word. She didn't need friends. She could take care of herself and has been for most of her life. Clint leaned back and sighed. "Fuck," he mumbled to himself, pretty sure he had just ruined what little chance he had of getting to know her.

The next day, when Clint walked into the cafeteria and looked over at Natasha's table, she wasn't there.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thank you guys so much for the awesome reviews! They really meant a lot to me! I hope you guys like this chapter and please tell me if there's something I can add or take out to make it better!**

Clint stared at the empty table. Where was she? Why wasn't she there? He thought back to the way he snapped at her on the subway yesterday. Was it his fault she wasn't there? He glanced around the cafeteria. Nobody else seemed to notice that she was gone and, if they did, they didn't seem to care. He felt uneasy at the thought. What if Natasha thought nobody cared about her? What if him yelling at her was a confirmation to that?

He sighed and stared at his food, ignoring the conversation his table was having about Mr. Selvig's physics test that they all bombed. He didn't know why he was getting so worked up over this. They hadn't even talked until three days ago and she wasn't exactly fond of him, putting it mildly. He barely even knew her, yet here he was, jumping to insane conclusions because she wasn't at lunch.

Clint wasn't completely oblivious – he knew his own emotions. He was well aware of the fact that he liked her to some extent. She was a complete bombshell to say the least, with her gorgeous red hair, her never-ending curves, her plump lips, her piercing green eyes, her smooth, pale skin, and not to mention her almost too perfect breasts – hey, he was only human, and a hormonal teenager at that. The fact that she could easily throw someone twice her size to the ground in three seconds flat was just icing on the beautiful, Russian cake.

But, now that he seriously thought about it, it wasn't just her appearance or the fact that she could kick serious ass that made him like her. Her personality, or what he's seen of it, is so intriguing. She's quiet and mostly keeps to herself, but she moves with a thick layer of confidence and poise that draws people's attention like moths to a light. But she didn't even seem to care about the attention she was getting. He couldn't help but wonder if she was even aware of the numerous guys (himself included, but with more subtlety) practically drooling over her.

A voice coming from behind him snapped him out of his thoughts. "Clint?"

He turned around and saw Bruce shifting uncomfortably. He gave the boy with glasses a confused look. "Um, hey, Bruce," he said. This was odd. They had never even made eye contact with each other outside of detention. Why was he talking to him now?

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Bruce asked, trying not to look at the other people at the table. He recognized a three of them as the ones who slammed him into the lockers and stole his backpack freshman year. He didn't like to be reminded of that day. He almost lost control of himself that day.

Clint gave him a small smile. "Um, sure. Let me just finish my lunch."

"Oh, ok. I'll just be, um…" he massaged the back of his neck and looked away.

"I'm almost done. You can sit if you want."

"No thanks. I'll just wait by the door."

Clint watched as Bruce walked away. A couple of people at the lunch table snickered.

"What was that about?" a tall, muscular boy with brown hair asked.

Clint shrugged. "I don't know."

"How do you even know each other?"

"Detention."

"What did he do?"

"Nothing."

"Right. Just like you?"

"Yeah."

Clint finished his food and walked out of the cafeteria. Bruce was standing by the door, wiping his glasses clean.

"So what did you need?"

"Well," he said, starting to walk, "I was thinking about everything that's happened with Thor's brother and I was wondering how he could've gotten away with it with no one seeing him, but then I remembered the security cameras. I thought that, if we can get the footage, we can prove our innocence."

"Awesome. Do you have the footage?"

He nodded. "Tony managed to hack into the cameras. He's in the computer lab with Thor and Steve right now."

Clint nodded and thought for a minute. "Hey, have you seen Natasha?"

Bruce shook his head. "I don't have any classes with her, so no."

"She wasn't at lunch today."

"Oh."

Clint wondered for a brief moment if Bruce or any of the others had caught on to how he felt about Natasha, but brushed it off. He had always been pretty good at hiding emotions. If anyone noticed, he doubted they actually cared.

The two of them walked into the computer lab. Tony was sitting at a computer with Thor and Steve on either side of him. "Did you get them?" Tony asked, not looking up from the screen.

"I got Clint, but we don't know where Natasha is," Bruce said, standing behind Tony to look at the screen.

"Did you get anything?" Clint asked, watching the footage.

Tony shook his head. "Not yet. I'm trying to figure out exactly when he got there. What time did we get called in?"

"I think it was after my lunch period, so around 12:30," Steve said.

"So it would have to be a little before then," Tony mused. "I'll set it to noon and we'll fast forward."

The screen showed an empty hallway, free of graffiti. Tony clicked the fast forward button. All of a sudden, the writing was on the wall and their stolen items were in place.

"What the hell?" Clint asked under his breath.

"Rewind that clip," Bruce said.

Tony did what he was asked and played it at normal speed, starting it just a few seconds before the glitch. The same thing happened.

"Pause it right before that happens."

Tony paused it.

Bruce pointed at the time. "Twelve hours, seventeen minutes, fifty-three seconds. Press play."

The wall suddenly had writing on it and their things were in place.

"Twelve hours, twenty-one minutes, nine seconds."

"That son of a bitch erased the footage!" Tony exclaimed.

Thor sighed. "My brother is very intelligent."

Tony glared at Thor. "Your damn brother is the reason we're in this mess, you idiot!"

"I had never said I condone his behavior."

"No, you're just saying we should appreciate the fact that he basically threw our chances of proving that he did it out the goddamn window!"

Steve grabbed Tony's shoulder to hold him back. "I think you need to calm down a little bit."

"Oh, you shut the hell up, pretty boy!" Tony snapped, forcefully shrugging his hand off.

"Guys?" Bruce asked quietly. This wasn't good. He couldn't handle too much fighting.

"Hey! He had nothing to do with this," Clint said to Tony, ignoring Bruce.

"Great, now _you're_ defending him! Good news, Rodgers, some guy with a slingshot's here to save the day!"

"Can we please just focus on the task at hand?" Steve asked.

"Which is what? We have no task at hand because we've got nothing to prove Loki did it!"

"I had warned you that my brother would be difficult to catch," Thor said, trying to remain calm.

"Guys?" Bruce tried again.

"Yeah, we know! We don't need you to fucking praise him for it!" Tony barked.

"I am not praising him for it!"

"If you think it's so damn impressive, why don't you help him next time? See if you can get us some more detention!"

"Tony, will you just calm down?" Clint asked angrily. "None of us could've done anything about this!"

"Stop yelling!" Bruce exclaimed with his hands clenched into fists. "Just stop fucking yelling!"

Everyone turned to look at Bruce, surprised. That was certainly unexpected. His eyes widened and he bolted out of the room. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. He had managed to keep it hidden for so long. How could he lose control like that?

He ran to the roof of the school. He needed fresh air. He needed to calm down. He burst through the door and panted heavily. His hands were shaking. He looked around and froze. He was not alone.

Sitting cross-legged just a few feet away from him was a red-haired girl, reading a book.

"Natasha?" he asked, surprised. He quickly tried to calm himself down. Enough people already knew. He didn't need her knowing too.

She looked up and saw the wild look in his eyes. She instantly knew why he was here. She understood him completely. "Sit."

Bruce took a few steps back. "Um, that's ok. I really should just-"

"Sit," she repeated firmly.

He instantly closed his mouth and sat next to her.

"I get it," she said simply, not looking at him.

"Get what?"

She sighed and reached into her bag. She pulled out a bottle of prescription medication and handed it to him. He read the label, surprised. It was bipolar medication.

"How did you-?"

"I recognized the look," she explained. "Is that why you're up here?"

He nodded, handing the pills back to her. "Tony found the footage on the security camera, but Loki erased it and everyone started fighting."

She took the pills back and said nothing.

"Why are you up here?" he asked.

She shrugged. "I just wanted to be alone."

"Oh. Should I leave?"

"You can stay if you want."

The two sat in silence for a while, left to their own thoughts.

"Clint was looking for you at lunch," Bruce finally said.

Natasha tensed slightly. "What did he want?"

"I don't know. He was just wondering where you were."

She shrugged, trying to remain impassive. He acted like he was some sort of victim because of her and then he had the audacity to wonder why she wasn't at lunch? Did it ever occur to him that maybe she wouldn't want to see him after what happened the day before?

Bruce could clearly tell that Natasha was not happy about this and didn't press the subject. The two of them stayed up there until they could faintly hear the sound of the bell ringing from inside.

**A/N: I'm sorry, but I love Bruce/Natasha as a BroTP and I have an idea for this that won't go away. Once again, leave me reviews and ideas and I'll write the next one as soon as I can!**


	5. Chapter 5

Clint walked into detention and felt a small wave of relief to see that not only was Bruce in the room and ok, but Natasha was there too. He gave a small nod of acknowledgement to everyone else and sat next to Natasha. Not much to his surprise, she ignored him. He wanted to say something, to apologize for what he had said, but decided it was better to wait until the others weren't with them.

Steve and Thor were the two chosen to clean up the hallways that day. Both being somewhat awkward, the conversations between them were few and far between. Thor explained how Loki was adopted and how they were close when they were younger. Even though the two were best friends, Loki never fit in with others. Steve was able to understand. When he was younger, he was short and scrawny and didn't have many friends. Though he had never gotten into trouble like Loki, he could understand why Loki would resort to it.

When they got back to the detention room, they were greeted with silence. Natasha was doing her homework, Tony was texting, Bruce was in the back of the room, avoiding eye contact with anybody, and Clint was staring off into space, occasionally casting glances at Natasha. Thor squeezed himself into one of the desk chairs and stared at the clock. Steve sat down next to Tony and took out his sketchbook. He started to draw, not really paying attention to his surroundings.

"Hey, that's pretty good," Tony said, looking over his shoulder.

Steve smiled sheepishly. "Thanks."

"Can I see this?" he asked, reaching for Steve's sketchbook.

"I mean, uh…I…"

Before Steve could give a definite response, the sketchbook was in Tony's hands and he was flipping through it. He turned to one page and started to chuckle.

"What?"

"Looks like someone's got a crush."

Steve turned beet red. "Give it back."

Tony grinned and kept flipping through, seeing more of the same girl. "So who is she?"

"Her name's Peggy," he mumbled.

"Peggy Carter?" Clint asked.

Steve stared at his hands in his lap, embarrassed.

"She your girlfriend?" Tony asked.

"No," Steve said, not looking up.

"Just show her these. She'll go out with you," Tony said, dropping the sketchbook into his lap.

"I'm not showing her these. She'll think I'm weird."

"She'll be flattered."

"You don't know that."

"Excuse me, but which one of us has a girlfriend?"

"The same person told us that it she rejected you a bunch of times before actually saying yes," Natasha piped in, looking up from her homework.

Clint tried, and did not succeed, to hold back a laugh. "She's got a point. But I think Peggy will like them."

"How do you know?" Steve asked.

Clint shrugged. "I don't, but it's always good to take a chance."

"What if she doesn't feel the same?" he asked.

"Then at least you tried."

Steve didn't respond, so Clint decided to drop the subject. The room was silent until Mr. Coulson came in and told them they could leave.

Clint saw Natasha walking and broke into a light job to catch up with her. He walked next to her, not saying anything. This was probably his only chance to get her to, at the very least, not completely hate him so he couldn't fuck it up.

"What do you want now?" she snapped, walking faster.

Clint sighed and kept up with her pace. "I wanted to apologize."

She didn't respond, but slowed her pace a little.

Clint took a breath, preparing himself. "I'm really sorry for what I said the other day. We barely even know each other and I probably came off creepy to you. I got mad at you for nothing. The thing is, if we're going to have to see each other five days a week for the rest of the month, we might as well at least try to get along. If you don't want to, I understand and I'll stop talking to. But I just wanted you to know that I'm really sorry."

Natasha said nothing for a long time, thinking over everything he had just said. She could tell he was sincere and was really trying to make amends. And he did have a point – the next few weeks were not going to be very enjoyable if they hated each other. She sighed. "Fine."

Clint wore a huge grin. It worked. He could actually talk to her now without her wanting to kill him.

"This doesn't mean we're friends," she added.

His grin didn't fade. He would take the best he could get. "That's fine with me."

The two of them walked to the train station in silence. The only difference was, for Clint, it was a comfortable silence this time. She didn't hate him. She was actually starting to warm up to him – or at least tolerate him. They got on the train and Natasha sat down. Clint was going to sit somewhere else, not wanting to push it, but saw that there were no other empty seats. He sat next to her, giving her an apologetic smile.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "It's fine, Clint."

Clint nodded, still smiling and took out his phone, texting his brother and asking him to make sure his dad wouldn't want to kill him.

"So who was she?" Natasha asked out of nowhere.

Clint looked at her, confused. First of all, she was actually talking to him and starting the conversation. Second of all, he didn't know what she was talking about. "What?"

"When you were talking to Steve about rejection like you were speaking from experience. Who rejected you?"

Clint shrugged. "It was just a girl I liked in middle school."

"Who?"

"Her name was Barbara Morse, but she liked 'Bobbi' better. Man, I was crazy about her. She was really pretty. She did archery too. She wasn't really that smart, but I didn't care. I thought I was in love."

Natasha nodded. "So what happened?"

Clint sighed. "I finally got the courage to ask her out."

"And she said no?"

"No, she said yes, but I found out she was only using me to make this other kid jealous. The second he asked her out, she dumped me and started going out with him."

"That sucks," she said, not knowing what else to say. She didn't have much experience with these things.

He chuckled. "Yeah, it did, but I'm over it. Like I said to Steve, I took a chance and it didn't work out, but I don't regret it. Looking back, I probably wouldn't even like her that much now."

She nodded.

"So what about you?"

"Huh?"

"Don't you have any ex boyfriend stories?"

"That's not something I'd like to talk about."

"Why not?"

"We're not friends."

Clint grinned. "Really? Because I just told you something I only tell friends."

Natasha sighed. "You're not my friend."

"That's fine. I don't have to be your friend, but like it or not, you're my friend, Romanoff."

She rolled her eyes and stood up as the train came to a stop.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow?" he asked hopefully.

She turned to look at him, the smallest hint of a smile on her face. "Maybe."

**A/N: I'm sorry this chapter's so short, but I haven't updated in a while and I wanted to get this up before Christmas break. You know the drill. Give me a review and tell me if you like it or not. Feel free to message me with ideas!**


	6. Chapter 6

Clint was happy – ridiculously happy. Natasha didn't completely hate him. She was actually warming up to him. He wore a goofy smile all the way home and couldn't even bring himself to be upset when his dad yelled at him. Later that night, he went to his room and lied down on his bed. Barney came in a few minutes later.

"What were you so happy about?" he asked.

Clint shrugged, staring at the ceiling. "Nothing really."

Barney rolled his eyes. "Come on, Clint. What is it?"

"Just this girl from detention."

"I don't like where this is going."

"What?"

"Remember Bobbi?"

"It's not like that."

"Then why are you so happy?"

"Well, she kind of hated me at first, but I think she's starting to warm up to me."

Barney shook his head. "So you're ridiculously happy because a girl you only like as a friend doesn't hate you."

Clint rolled onto his side to look at him. "Ok, maybe I kind of like her, but it's nothing like how I liked Bobbi."

"What's her name?"

"Natasha."

"Nice name. What's she like?"

Clint smiled. "Well, for one thing, she's gorgeous. Seriously, no one can stop staring at her. But it's like she doesn't care about all the attention. People try to talk to her all the time, but she doesn't let them. I'm not sure why. She's a black belt too. She likes to read and she can be pretty funny sometimes. Other than that, I don't know much about her. I'm just happy she doesn't completely hate me."

Barney nodded, listening. "She sounds pretty cool."

Clint chuckled. "Yeah, she is."

The next day, Clint bought his lunch and was about to go to his usual table, but saw that Natasha was back at lunch. He decided to take a chance and sat with her.

"What are you doing?" Natasha asked, confused and slightly annoyed.

"What? I'm sitting down," he replied, putting ketchup on his burger.

"Why are you sitting here?"

He shrugged. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want you here."

"Hey, you said you'd try to put up with me."

"I never said that."

"Well, you implied it and I want to sit here."

She sighed, giving up. "Fine. Stay."

Clint smiled and took a bite of his burger. "So why do you always sit alone, anyway?"

"Because this school is filled with nothing but idiotic pigs who do nothing but lift weights and drool over every girl's chest and annoying, giggly morons who have emotional breakdowns over something as stupid as their friend wearing their shirt or something like that."

Clint had to laugh at that. Natasha was pretty funny. The fact that she said it with a completely straight face only made it better. "Yeah, you got a point. But not everyone here's like that."

"Most are."

"But not everyone. Look at Bruce and Steve."

She shrugged, taking a bite of her pasta.

"And, if it makes you feel any better," Clint said with a small smile, "I don't lift weights or drool over every girl's chest."

She rolled her eyes. "You're not going to get me to be your friend that easily."

"I know. I like a good challenge."

She raised an eyebrow.

He took another bite of his burger, wiping some ketchup off his face with a napkin. "So did Tony come up with any more plans since our first one kind of fell to shit?"

Natasha gave him a small shrug. "I wouldn't know."

"Do you ever see him outside of detention?"

"No, I don't have any classes with him."

He nodded. "So I take it you're not in AP chem?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Trying to say I'm stupid?"

"No, no, no! I just-"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm joking, dumbass."

Clint let out a sigh of relief and a nervous chuckle. "Ok, good."

The two fell silent for a few minutes. Natasha ate more of her pasta as Clint took another bite of his burger. He glanced over at his usual table to see that almost everyone at it was staring at him. Some were confused, some giving him a thumbs up, some waving him back over.

"It looks like your friends want you back over there," Natasha said, following his gaze.

"They'll live," he said, waving them off.

"Why are you here, anyway?"

"I told you, I don't want you to hate me and you –"

"Yeah, I know that part, but why do you care so much?"

Clint shrugged. "I don't know. I think you're pretty cool."

She shrugged and turned around to look at the clock at the wall. "I have to go print something."

Clint nodded as she got ready to leave. "See you at detention."

"Bye," She got up.

"Hey, wait."

"What?"

"Can I sit here tomorrow?"

She thought for a minute. "Maybe."

Clint wore a small smile as she left. It was better than nothing. He went back over to his usual table, laughing at his friends' shocked expressions. "What?"

"Dude, Natasha never lets anyone sit with her," one of them said.

"Really? I had no idea," he replied sarcastically.

"Why were you sitting there, anyway?"

Clint shrugged. "I have detention with her and we got to talking and now we're kind of friends, I guess."

"So what's she like?" another asked.

"She's alright. I don't know a lot about her, so there's not really much to say," he replied, only half lying. Natasha was only just beginning to open up to him and most of the thing he knew about her, he found out accidently. He doubted she'd like it if he told his friends what he knew about her.

"Well, she's definitely hot. Think you could introduce me?"

"Come on, Sam, let him have this one. He hasn't had a girlfriend since Morse."

Clint rolled his eyes at his friends' teasing. "It's not like that. We're just friends."

"So you'll introduce me?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"'Cause you're a pig," he said, pushing Sam.

"Come on, she's hot!" Sam said, pushing Clint back.

"And you're a pig."

"Oh, shut it, virgin boy."

"Do you really think she'll agree to get with the guy that got drunk at Frank's party and hit on literally every girl there?"

"Hey! I got with two of them!"

"And you couldn't even remember which two."

Everyone at the table started laughing. Sam rolled his eyes. "Fine, you can have her."

Clint shook his head. "I'm not 'having' her. She's just a friend."

"Whatever you say, Clint."

He chuckled and looked at the clock. "Well, I got to go."

"You coming to archery club today?"

"Can't. Detention, remember?"

"Dammit, Barton."

He shrugged. "Sorry."

"Whatever. Go have fun with your hot 'friend' at detention."

Clint rolled his eyes and left. Natasha was just a friend. He could barely even consider her that. He wasn't going to ask for any more. It didn't matter how pretty she looked or how funny she could be or how much he thought about her. She was only a friend.

**A/N: I'm so sorry this took so long and that it's so short! I was so busy! Midterms are coming up soon and I had a lot of work to do! To be honest, the only reason I finished this when I did is because I'm on break and I got my wisdom teeth taken out a few days ago and can't go anywhere or do anything. Anyway, I really hope you liked the chapter. Be sure to leave reviews and suggestions! I'm definitely taking a lot of suggestions I got into consideration and I'm trying to find ways to incorporate my favorite ones!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: This is probably going to be the last chapter for a little while because my midterms start next week and I have a big English project due early February. Like always, be sure to tell me what you think and leave suggestions! I'm always open to them!**

Clint had never thought he would say it, but he was actually looking forward to detention. When he got to the room, he saw that Tony was already there, leaning back in his chair with his feet up on the desk. He gave him a small smile and sat in his usual seat. Tony turned around to look at him.

"What?" Clint asked, raising an eyebrow.

Tony just gave him a smirk. "She doesn't talk to anyone else, you know."

"What?"

"Natasha."

"So?"

Tony chuckled and shook his head. "You're not exactly doing your best to hide it."

Clint rolled his eyes, knowing what Tony was thinking. "We're just friends. Scratch that, we're not even really friends."

"Doesn't change the fact that you like her."

"You're crazy."

"Am I?"

"Yes. Look, I think she's hot, but so do half the guys in the school and it doesn't mean I want to go out with her."

Tony laughed.

"Why do you care anyway?"

He shrugged. "Not much else to do here."

"How about coming up with a plan, like you said you would?"

"Already did."

"What is it?"

Tony sat up. "It's simple; we get Loki to confess."

Clint rolled his eyes. "I seriously doubt it's going to be that simple."

"Will you just listen?"

"Go ahead."

"The plan is we all hang out at my place one night and get him drunk enough to tell us. We'll record it and show it to Fury."

"And what makes you think he'll agree to it?"

"I'll have Thor get him to come."

Clint sighed. "There's no way this is going to work."

"You don't know that."

"It's probably not going to."

"Well, let's see what everyone else thinks."

When the other four came in, Tony explained the plan to them. Natasha and Bruce had the same reaction as Clint and Thor and Steve were confused.

"Why would Loki tell us?" Steve asked.

"Because he'll be drunk," Tony explained for what felt like the millionth time.

"Tony, I really don't think it'll work. Loki's smart. He'll probably figure it out," Bruce said.

"You got any better ideas?"

"We could always have Natasha beat it out of him," Clint suggested, earning a glare from Natasha.

"You think you can convince him to come?" Tony asked Thor.

Thor shrugged. "My brother would be very suspicious if the same people he had gotten put in detention wanted him as company."

Natasha nodded in agreement. "It's a stupid plan."

"No one asked you," Tony snapped.

"You did."

Tony sighed. "Fine, no drinking night."

"Do you have any other ideas?" Steve asked.

"You know, I don't see you guys coming up with any ideas. Why do I have to do everything?"

"Weren't you the one who said you'd come with something?" Clint asked.

"That doesn't mean I'm not open to suggestions."

As the six of them exchanged ideas, one being more ridiculous than the other, Mr. Coulson came in and asked for two people to clean up. Natasha sighed and said she would go.

"You know what? I'll go with her this time," Tony said before Clint could say anything.

Natasha gave Tony a confused and suspicious look. He just smirked. Clint's face fell when they left the room. He was looking forward to talking to Natasha again.

"So what's the story with you and Barton?" Tony asked as he and Natasha were cleaning one of the hallways.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, don't give me that innocent crap. You know he likes you."

Natasha rolled her eyes.

"What? It's not like he's doing anything to hide it."

She didn't answer.

"I mean, come on! He goes out of his way to talk to you, he tries so hard to get you to like him, he has this big, stupid smile when you don't act like you hate him-"

"And how do you know all of this?"

"It's not exactly hard to miss. Are you really that oblivious?"

She glared at him.

Tony put his hands up in defense. "Whoa, easy!"

She turned around and kept cleaning.

After a few seconds, Tony spoke again. "What I don't understand is why you put up with it. It's not like you really want friends, from what I can see."

"It's not like I have a choice. He doesn't leave me alone."

"Well, from what he told me, you can beat the crap out of him."

"That doesn't mean I will."

"And why not?"

"I already have detention for an entire month. I don't need more."

"That can't be the only reason."

She rolled her eyes.

Tony thought it over for a few seconds. His face slowly broke out into a smirk. "Oh!"

She turned around to look at him. "What?"

"Now I get it."

"What?" she repeated.

"You like him!"

She raised an eyebrow.

"It's so obvious now!"

"Is it now," she said, slightly amused.

"So why do you like him?"

"I don't."

"Liar."

"I'm not lying."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Come on! Why else would you let him talk to you?"

"I'm letting you talk to me, aren't I?"

"You know what I mean!"

She sighed, annoyed. "Stark, I don't exactly do the whole 'liking people' thing."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I'm not interested in anyone, including Clint."

"Come on! Everyone likes someone!"

"I don't."

"You're lying."

"Why do you care so much?"

He shrugged. "Just pointing out the obvious."

When the two of them went back to the room, Bruce and Steve were still trying to come up with ideas on how to prove their innocence, Thor was staring at the clock, and Clint was doing his homework, only half-listening to Bruce and Steve. Natasha took her place next to Clint, ignoring Tony's smirk.

"You look pissed," Clint commented.

"Not in the mood, Barton," she replied.

"Tony?"

"I said I'm not in the mood."

He shrugged and went back to his homework. He only looked up when Tony waved him over. Natasha watched as his face turned red and started angrily whispering to him. She had a feeling she knew what it was about.

As Natasha was walking to the train station, she heard someone yell at her to wait up. She turned around and saw Clint jogging towards her. She sighed. This was definitely going to be an awkward conversation.

Clint slowed his pace when he reached her. "Look, I know Tony said-"

"Save it," she interrupted.

"Huh?"

"Stark's an ass. Do you really think I would listen to a word he says?"

Clint visibly relaxed. "Ok, good."

Natasha nodded and started walking again.

"I mean, I think you're pretty and you can be a really cool person sometimes, but…"

"I know," she said, her cheeks a light shade of pink from the compliment. She wasn't used to anyone saying things like that to her.

"Besides, you're still weird and I'm still annoying, right?" he joked.

She made a small noise of amusement and the corners of her lips turned upward slightly.

"So we're alright?"

She nodded.

He smiled. "Good."

As the two of them sat on the train, they started talking. It wasn't awkward for either of them. They only saw each other as acquaintances, nothing more. At least, that's what they thought.

The train came to a stop and Natasha got up to leave.

"Hey, wait," Clint said.

"It's my stop."

"I know, but-"

"Will you just get on with it? I have to go."

"If you ever want to hang out sometime, I'm usually available."

She thought for a moment. "Maybe," She quickly got off the train before the doors closed.

Clint grinned. Maybe. Maybe was better than nothing.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I am so sorry this took so long! I've been really busy lately and rehearsals for the school play just started up and I've been kind of sick lately, but I'm definitely going to try to update more frequently. My goal is at least once a week. This might mean shorter chapters, so I'm sorry about that. Just tell me what you think in the reviews!**

Loki was walking through the hallway when he felt something tug on his backpack. The next thing he knew, he was pulled into a janitor's closet with an angry Tony Stark glaring at him. He smirked.

"Tony Stark. To what do I owe this pleasure?" he asked.

"Cut the crap, Laufeyson," Tony snapped. "We know it was you."

"And?"

"And we want to know why the hell you blamed it on us."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Well I'm not going to let myself get caught."

"But why us? We didn't even know your brother."

He shrugged. "It was easy to place the blame on you. I just went through the lost and found and happened to find everyone else's things."

"Well congratulations. You've managed to get the six worst possible people to piss off in trouble."

"Am I supposed to be afraid?"

Tony shrugged. "Maybe."

"And why's that."

"Let's do a head count. We've got your brother, the captain of the football team, a science nerd with some serious anger management issues, a Russian black belt, a guy who's freakishly good with a bow and arrow, and me, the genius son of a billionaire. And every single one of us wants your head on a platter," Tony opened the door. "We're going to get you caught, Loki. Remember that," And with that, he left.

Loki smirked to himself. He wasn't afraid. There was no way he was going to get caught.

Clint sat in his bedroom, homework forgotten. It wasn't that he was a bad student. He just had something else on his mind. He looked at his alarm clock and smiled. It was time. He opened his window and climbed down the fire escape, walking in the direction he went last time. He had a martial arts class to get to.

Natasha dodged a punch thrown at her and retaliated with a blow to her attacker's abdomen. The boy she was sparring will doubled over and she took him down with ease. Clint watched from the other side of the street with a small smirk on his face.

"Beautiful and deadly," he thought to himself.

Natasha's class ended and the rest of the group filed out as she stayed behind to stretch. The sensei had a train to catch and asked her to lock up when she was done. She leaned against the wall, taking a sip of water.

"Not bad, Romanoff," Clint said to her as he walked in.

She turned to look at him, not even surprised that he was there. "I could see you across the street. If you're going to stalk me, you might want to find a better hiding place."

"I'm not stalking you. I just figured you didn't want me to embarrass you in front of your friends."

"They're not my friends."

"Really?"

She rolled her eyes. "Training with them doesn't mean I'm friends with them."

He nodded, understanding. "I get it. I'm not exactly friends with most of the guys on the archery team."

"You acted like you were friends with them."

He shrugged and leaned against the wall. "I'm not really friends with them, I'm just friendly. There's a difference."

"I know."

"And you, Romanoff, happen to be neither," he said with a teasing smile.

Natasha arched her back and stretched her arms over her head. "Then why are you friends with me?"

Clint's smile grew. "So we are friends."

"It's not like you're going to take 'no' for an answer. And you didn't answer my question."

He thought for a moment. "I don't know. I just always see you push everyone away. You looked like you could use a friend and, considering most of the school's afraid of you, I figured I should give it a shot."

"Are you afraid of me?"

"To be honest, kind of. I can read people pretty well and I couldn't get a read on you, so that threw me off a little. And the fact that you can probably kick my ass into a different time zone doesn't help much."

"There's no 'probably.'"

He chuckled. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"I can hold myself pretty well in a fight."

She looked at him, sizing him up. "You'd lose."

He smirked. "Want to bet?"

She crossed her arms, looking at him expectantly.

"Alright, I win, you give me your number. You win, I'll leave you alone tomorrow."

"Why do you want my number?"

"Because we're friends. Friends try to keep in touch outside of school."

"Why?"

"You don't have a lot of friends do you?" he asked jokingly.

She shrugged. "I don't need a lot of friends."

"So it's a bet."

"Fine."

"Alright," Clint pushed himself off of the wall and got into a fighting stance. "Let's go."

As the two of them sparred, Natasha quickly realized that Clint wasn't as inexperienced as she had originally thought. He had managed to block most of the punched thrown at him and occasionally landed a hit on her.

"I told you I can hold myself well," Clint said, slightly out of breath. He threw a roundhouse kick to Natasha's side.

Natasha dodged the kick and retaliated with a punch to the abdomen. "Don't get overconfident," she replied, also a little breathless.

He just smirked and blocked her punch. "It's not overconfident if you're lasting longer than the guys I saw you fight earlier."

"It's because I know how they fight."

"You could at least give me some credit," He trapped her arm to his chest.

She quickly jabbed him in the gut, forcing him to free her arm. "I'll give you credit when you earn it."

"You wound me, Romanoff. You really do."

"I will," she said, sweeping his leg out from under him, taking him down. Before he could get back up, she climbed on top of him, straddling his hips and pinning his wrists above his head. She smirked. "I win."

He laughed, looking up at her. "Looks like it. I'll leave you alone tomorrow."

She nodded and got up.

"We should do this again sometime," Clint suggested, pushing himself up.

"Maybe."

"I mean, we can help each other out. You have more of a challenge and I can learn some moves from you."

"You're not a challenge."

"Gee, thanks."

She rolled her eyes and walked over to the front desk, grabbing the keys, a pen, and a piece of paper.

"What are you doing?" Clint asked.

"I need to lock up," she responded before giving him the paper.

"What's this?"

"Look at it, stupid."

He unfolded the paper. His eyes widened when he realized that it was her phone number. "But you won," he said, confused.

"You said that friends kept in touch outside of school," she said with a small shrug.

He smiled. "Right. Thanks."

She nodded. "Ok, you have to leave. I need to lock up."

He nodded and started to go. "See you tomorrow."

She gave him a small smile.

Clint left the building, putting the piece of paper in his pocket. He and Natasha were actually friends. Natasha actually acknowledged that he was her friend. There was no way he was going to be able to leave her alone the next day.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Thanks so much for the reviews! I'm really sorry if this chapter's a little shorter, but I really want to update at least once a week! Be sure to let me know what you think!**

Clint opened the window to his bedroom and climbed in. "Did Dad notice I was gone?" he asked Barney.

Barney was sprawled across his bed, using his laptop. "I don't think so. He didn't say anything."

He nodded and started to get ready for bed.

"Where'd you go anyway?"

He shrugged. "Out."

Barney gave him a look, clearly not believing him. "Out where?"

"Just out."

Barney rolled his eyes and saw Clint take something out of his pocket. "What's that?"

Clint quickly put it in the drawer of his nightstand. "Nothing."

"Come on, what is it?"

"I said it's nothing."

"Then why can't I know what it is?"

"Because it's none of your business."

Barney ran over to Clint's nightstand and opened it. Clint tried to stop him, pushing him out of the way. The two brothers fought for a few seconds until Barney elbowed Clint in the ribs and grabbed the piece of paper, running to the other side of the room.

"What the hell, Barney?" Clint complained, getting up and rolling his shoulder.

Barney unfolded the piece of paper and grinned. "It's a phone number."

"Yeah, no shit."

"Who's number is it?"

"Just give it back, Barney."

"Just tell me who it is."

"Why do you care?"

"Just tell me."

"It's Natasha's, now give it back."

Barney gave it back with a small smirk.

"What?"

"I thought you said you were just friends."

"We are."

"Then why do you have her number?"

"Because we're friends."

He gave him a look of disbelief.

"We are!" Clint insisted.

Barney laughed. "Whatever you say."

"Why do you care so much?"

His expression turned more serious. "I don't want it to be Bobbi all over again."

Clint sighed. "It's not going to be like Bobbi. She's just a friend. Besides, she's not like that."

"So you do like her."

"I never said that."

"But you do."

Clint scowled at his younger brother for a little bit before responding. "Ok, maybe I like her a little bit, but that's not the point. We're just friends and that's probably all we're going to be."

"Why?"

"Well, for one thing, she can barely stand me."

"Then why are you friends?"

Clint shrugged. "I don't know. I guess she's warming up to me a little, but, then again, she doesn't really have friends."

"How come?"

"I'm not sure. She's a little cold, but it's not like she's mean. And she's pretty funny too."

"Is she cute?"

He nodded. "Yeah, she's really pretty."

"So how'd you get her number?"

"Well, she does karate and I saw her after her class and we sparred. She's pretty good. We figured we could do it again sometime and help each other out – not that she really needs it, though."

Barney laughed. "You got your ass kicked?"

"Hey, I lasted longer than most of the guys in her class."

"She sounds alright."

Clint nodded, smiling. She was definitely more than alright.

Bruce quickly walked through the halls, careful not to make eye contact with anyone. All of the work for his AP classes was starting to get to him and the two guys from his gym class filling his backpack with pudding didn't make it any better. He went to his locker to get his jacket. The weather was getting colder, but he needed to get outside and breathe. He opened his locker and found a small plastic bag with a note next to it. Confused, he picked up the note and read it.

_I heard about what happened with your backpack. Figured this might help. I'd give you something stronger, but I don't know what you take. Make sure no one sees you take it. The teachers will have a fit. – Natasha_

Bruce couldn't help but smile at the note and opened the bag. Inside was an Advil. He put the bag in his pocket. It wasn't much, but it would definitely help with the seemingly never-ending headache he had. He reminded himself to thank Natasha when he saw her.

Clint sat in his usual seat in detention, waiting for everyone else to come in. Steve was sitting in the front, drawing in his sketchbook.

"So did you tell Peggy yet?" Clint asked suddenly, making the other boy jump slightly.

"About what?" he asked nervously.

"You know what."

Steve sighed. "Not yet."

"Why not?"

"I'm, um…I just…" He looked away, embarrassed.

"Nervous?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Don't be. If she doesn't like you, she'll probably appreciate it."

"Or she'll think I'm creepy."

"Or she'll think you're creepy. But you'll never know if you don't tell her."

Before Steve could respond, Bruce and Natasha came in, talking. Clint looked confused; he's never seen Natasha really talk to anyone else. He watched as Natasha gave Bruce a small smile. He hated to admit that he felt a small pang of jealousy. He had only seen Natasha smile when she was smiling at _him_.

He quickly shook those thoughts out of his head. Natasha wasn't "his" and she never would be. Even if, by some miracle, she did want to be more than friends, she would still be her own person. He knew that. It was just…hard for him to see her so comfortable with Bruce. He held back a sigh. Maybe she liked him the way he liked her.

When Mr. Coulson came in and asked for two people to clean, Bruce raised his hand. Clint offered to go as well. The two of them were asked to sort the books in the library. Bruce, knowing the room well, quickly fell into a routine. Clint did his best to keep up with him.

"So I, um…I saw you talking to Natasha before," Clint said as he put a book back in its place on the shelf.

Bruce nodded, not saying anything.

"So you two are friends?" he asked, pressing the subject a little further.

Bruce shrugged. "I guess. She's pretty nice."

Clint raised an eyebrow, surprised. Nice? Natasha Romanoff was being _nice_? "Really?"

"Sometimes."

"So…are you two…"

"What?"

"Do you like her?"

Bruce blushed slightly, not giving a verbal answer.

Clint sighed. "So you do?"

"Why? Do you?"

"I asked you first."

Bruce smiled and shook his head. "I can't say I don't think she's pretty, but I don't think we'd exactly be good for each other."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, she kind of scares me."

Clint chuckled. "I thought you said she was nice."

"She is sometimes, but she's still scary."

He smiled. "You got that right."

"So do you like her?"

"Kind of, I guess, but I don't think she likes me and she's just starting to warm up to me a little and…why am I even telling you all this?"

Bruce smiled and shrugged. "I've been told I'm a pretty good listener."

The two finished up in comparable silence. Clint couldn't help but feel slightly relieved.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I know I promised once a week and I'm still going to try my best to keep that promise. I'm really sorry this chapter's a little late. I had February break last week and I spent it looking at colleges without any computer access. I'm definitely going to try to update more frequently though. Be sure to leave reviews and suggestions!**

Clint and Bruce finished up in the library and went back to the classroom. Clint looked at the clock and saw that there was still twenty minutes left of detention. He sat next to Natasha, giving her his trademark smirk. He felt his heart beat a little bit faster when she gave him a small smile in return. He quickly made himself busy by searching through his backpack for his homework before he could do anything stupid.

After Mr. Coulson dismissed them, Clint and Natasha walked to the station together. Clint couldn't help but notice how Natasha was slowly relaxing around him more and more. He wondered what happened to her that made her so distant to everyone. After, no one just never trusts anybody without a reason. He wanted to know why she had so many walls built around her. He wanted to know who could've hurt her so badly that she felt she could never allow herself to get close to anybody again. He wanted to find that person and punch whoever it was in the face, but he knew he couldn't. He promised himself to never ask her. It had taken so much effort to get her to open up to him even a little. He couldn't risk losing the little trust she had in him by bringing up what was probably a delicate subject. He just wished he could make her realize that not everybody was going to hurt her, especially not him.

"Clint?"

"Huh?" He snapped out of his thoughts and turned to Natasha, who gave him an annoyed, but slightly amused look.

"I was trying to tell you to hurry up for the past five minutes, but you were staring off into space and we missed the train."

"Really?"

"We're not on the train, are we?"

"You didn't have to wait for me."

"Aren't friends supposed to do things like that?"

Clint gave her a smile. "Yeah, I guess so. When's the next train coming?"

Natasha checked her watch. "About ten minutes."

He nodded. "Let's sit down."

The two of them sat on one of the benches together. Clint made an effort not to let his mind wander again, no matter how badly he wanted to know who could've possibly hurt someone as strong as Natasha.

"So what were you thinking about?" she asked.

"What?"

"What were you thinking about?" she repeated, rolling her eyes. "Isn't that the whole reason we missed the train in the first place?"

"Alright, I get it. I'm a dumbass," he said, putting his hands up in mock surrender.

"So?"

He shrugged. "It was nothing important."

"Just important enough for us to miss the train."

"Apparently."

The two of them were silent for a few minutes before Clint decided it was finally too much not to ask. "Hey, Natasha?"

"Yeah?"

"How come you never talk to anyone else?"

She shrugged. "Everybody else is petty and stupid."

"Yeah, you told me that, but that can't be the only reason. Besides, not everyone's like that."

"Most of them are."

"Well, you can't know that for sure if you don't give them a chance."

She looked at him. "Why do you care so much?"

He smiled. "Because you're my friend."

Natasha couldn't stop a small smile from appearing.

"So how come you're always alone?"

Her smile instantly disappeared and she looked away, focusing on a spot on the ground. "Sometimes it's just easier that way."

"It's still nice to have people you can trust."

"I already have that."

Clint was about to respond, but the sound of the train pulling into the station interrupted him. Natasha stood up and hoisted her bag over her shoulder.

"Let's go," she said, not looking at him.

Clint followed her, mentally cursing himself for being so stupid. Of course she wasn't just going to tell him. They had only known each other for two weeks, even though it felt much longer than that to him. He knew he had to stop asking questions like that if he really wanted her to stay his friend.

The two of them got on the train and sat next to each other. Clint occasionally glanced her way, only to find her staring at the ground. He didn't like the look in her eyes. He would recognize that look anywhere. It was the same look haunted he had whenever he thought about the night his whole life had changed. Seeing that look in her eyes made his heart crumble into pieces. It didn't help that he was the one who brought up whatever it was that gave her that look.

"Look, I'm really sorry," he said, keeping his voice soft.

"It's fine," she said quietly.

"No, it's not. We barely know each other and it was way out of line."

"Clint, it's fine."

"Doesn't mean I'm not sorry."

She sighed.

He hesitantly put his hand on her shoulder, genuinely surprised when she didn't shrug him off. "Look, if you ever want to talk…" he started.

She nodded. "Thanks."

"Anytime."

The train pulled up to Natasha's stop and she got up without a word. Clint leaned back and sighed. Why was he always doing something stupid enough to jeopardize what little friendship they had? He got off at his stop and went to his apartment, ignoring his father's yelling – he had heard it all before, anyway. He lied down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. He couldn't stop thinking about that look in her eyes. He hated that Natasha had gone through something horrible enough to give her that look. It just wasn't fair. The reason Clint had that look was because he was broken. Even though his life on earth had been brief so far, it was filled with memories and demons that would haunt him forever. He couldn't even bear the thought of Natasha having anything similar to his experience.

However, the two of them were more alike than they thought.


	11. Chapter 11

"Tony, this really isn't a good idea."

"You never think any of my ideas are good."

"They never are."

"Well, aren't you supportive."

It was 7:30 in the morning and Tony and Pepper were already inside the school with spray paint and a notebook Tony had managed to swipe out of Loki's bag.

"This isn't going to work," Pepper insisted.

"Not with that attitude," Tony said, opening a can of spray paint. "Besides, he framed me, I frame him. It's just getting even."

"It's not getting even if you get caught."

"We're not going to get caught."

Pepper sighed. "You know, there are times when I wonder why I go out with you."

"Because you love me," he responded in a teasing tone.

"Aren't I lucky."

"Only the best for you."

"Just hurry up so we can get out of here."

"I don't think that's going to happen," a voice said from behind them, making them both jump.

The two turned around and found themselves face to face with Ms. Hill.

"Now you've done it," Pepper said to Tony.

Clint decided to spend his lunch period on the roof. He always had a thing for high places. Besides, he needed to be alone. Unfortunately, alone wasn't an option. He turned around when he heard the door open and found himself looking at the one person he didn't want to talk to.

"Natasha," he said quietly.

She gave him a small nod and sat against the door, understanding his need for space. Clint sighed and stared out at the city, watching all of the people pass by. Every so often, he would glance at her and would find her staring right back at him with her calculative gaze. She was trying to figure him out.

"You don't have to feel guilty," she said suddenly.

Clint looked at her. "What?"

"You still feel guilty about trying to figure out why I don't let a lot of people get close to me. You think it's somehow your fault."

He let out a humorless chuckle. "You're mostly right, but it's because I blame myself."

"Then what?"

"I'm guilty because I brought up something you're not comfortable talking about. I want you to be able to trust me, Nat."

"I do trust you."

"I know that, and I'm really happy you do, but I still said something that hurt you."

"You're not the one that hurt me."

He sighed. So someone really did hurt her. "I'm sorry."

"Clint, stop apologizing. I don't need you to pity me."

"I know."

"So stop."

"I'll try."

She nodded. "Thank you."

He gave her a small smile. "You're welcome."

After a few minutes of silence, Clint got up and walked over to where Natasha was sitting and sat down next to her, their shoulders brushing together. "So why are you up here?"

She shrugged. "It's nice to be alone sometimes."

He nodded in agreement. "I get it. Sorry you're not exactly alone."

"It's fine."

"So you don't want me to leave?"

"You were here first."

He grinned. "Good to know that that's the only reason," he said sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes. "If I really didn't want you here, I would've made you leave a long time ago."

"So you do want me here."

"Oh, shut up."

His smile grew. "I knew you liked me, Romanoff."

"Consider yourself lucky. You're one of the few."

His smile softened. "I do."

After a few minutes, they could faintly hear the bell ring.

Natasha got up. "Come on, we have class."

Clint looked at her. "Wait, can we just…stay here for a while?"

"I have class."

"I know, but…" He stopped himself, unsure of what to say. Thankfully, Natasha seemed to understand and sat back down.

"I'll stay."

He gave her a small smile. "Thanks."

She nodded.

Later that day, Clint had been told that, since he and Natasha had both cut class, they had to serve an extra hour of detention that same day. Neither one of them seemed to really mind. They were starting to really enjoy each other's company. As the others filed in, they realized that they had another joining them.

"You guys know Pepper, right?" Tony asked, gesturing to his girlfriend.

Bruce and Steve nodded. Pepper gave them a small smile and looked at Natasha, slightly relieved to see that she wasn't the only girl.

"How come you have detention?" Bruce asked her.

"Tony wanted to frame Loki the same way he framed you and dragged me with him. We both got caught," she explained.

"We told you it wasn't going to work," Clint said to Tony.

"Shut up, Legolas."

Clint rolled his eyes at the nickname. "Hey, I'm not the one who got in even more trouble and dragged my girlfriend into this."

"That's because you're girlfriend's already into this."

It was Natasha's turn to roll her eyes as she turned her attention to Pepper. "Why exactly do you put up with him?"

Pepper let out a small chuckle. "Believe me, I ask myself the same question every day."

Tony pouted. "Hey, you love me."

"Some of the time."

"Only some?"

"Only when you're not being an asshole."

They both smiled, enjoying the playful banter.

"So, know that we have proof that your plan sucked, do you have any more ideas?" Natasha asked.

"Not since you guys shot down the rest of my brilliant ideas," Tony responded. "Besides, why do I have to come up with everything? Why can you figure something out?"

"Fine," She leaned back in her chair and thought for a moment. She looked at Thor. "Do you think you'd be able to find out if Loki's going to do anything else?"

"I will do my best to find out," he replied.

She nodded. "Good. If it turns out he is, find out where and when. I have some experience with sneaking around, so I'll follow him with a camera. If it's possible, Clint can probably watch from the rafters. I'll record it and hold him down while the rest of you get teachers."

Thor, Clint, Bruce, and Steve nodded, liking the idea.

"And if he doesn't want to be held down?" Tony asked.

"I think she can handle it," Clint said with a smirk.

Natasha rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the group. "So it's a plan?"

"I will try to have my brother tell me of his further plans," Thor promised.

"Then it's a plan."

**A/N: I tried to make this chapter as long as I could, but I've had a pretty busy week. I felt the story was kind of straying away from the Loki conflict and I wanted to bring it back up. I promise that there will still be Clintasha, but I still need ideas from you guys. I'm starting to run out of filler ideas and I don't want to write something you guys hate so be sure to give me some feedback! I really do take your ideas into account.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I am so sorry this took so long! I've just been really busy lately and this wasn't my first priority. I promise the next chapter will be up sooner!**

When four o'clock came around, everybody, with the exception of Clint and Natasha, got up to leave.

"Have fun with your girlfriend," Tony said, earning an eye roll from Clint and a glare from Natasha.

Soon, the two were alone. Natasha read her book and Clint made himself busy by counting the tiles on the ceiling for the God knows how many-th time. Every so often, he would glance at Natasha.

"So what are you reading?" he asked.

She shrugged, her eyes never leaving the book. "Nothing that would interest you."

"You don't know that."

"I'm pretty sure I do."

"How do you know?"

"Can you read Russian?"

Clint looked at her and raised an eyebrow. His eyes fell to the book and saw that the title was, indeed, in Russian. "You speak Russian?"

She nodded.

"How'd you learn?"

"I was born in Russia."

"Really?"

Another nod.

"Cool."

She shrugged.

Clint was silent for a little. 'Cool?' Really? All he could say was 'cool?' At least Natasha didn't seem to care that much. Then again, he wasn't expecting her to. He looked at her, wanting to ask so many questions, but he didn't want to bother her again.

"I moved to America two years ago," she said as if she could read his thoughts.

"Really? That soon?" Clint asked.

She nodded.

"Your English is really good."

"I knew I was going to come over eventually, so I started learning when I was younger."

"Why'd you come over?"

Natasha didn't answer for a few seconds. Finally, she looked at him, her expression slightly darkened. Clint would have missed it completely if he wasn't looking for it. "There are some questions you shouldn't ask. You might not like the answers."

Clint simply nodded. He wasn't going to push her. She'd tell him when she felt like it – if she ever felt like it.

When the second hour ended, both of them got up and left the room, ready to go home for the weekend. Clint was supposed to go to the movies with Sam that night, but checked his phone and saw that Sam was grounded – again. He sighed. Now he had no plans and really didn't want to go back home. Fridays were usually the worst days for his father and Clint preferred to be away from him for as long as possible. He looked at Natasha, wondering if she had any plans.

"You know, the staring's getting really annoying," she said, not looking up from her book.

"I wasn't staring at you."

"Yes, you were."

"Looking at you and staring at you are two different things."

"Well, looking at me is getting annoying too."

"Fine, I'll stop."

"Thank you."

"Only if we hang out tonight."

Natasha looked up from her book, a bewildered expression on her face.

"What? I don't have plans, you don't have plans-"

"How do you know I don't have any plans?"

"Do you?"

"No."

"Great, where do you want to go?"

"I never agreed to this."

"Then what else are you going to do?"

"Go home."

"So you want to hang out at your place?"

She rolled her eyes. He just doesn't give up, does he? "That's not what I meant."

"Then what do you want to do?"

"Why do you want to hang out with me so badly?"

"Because friends hang out."

"Are friends this persistent?"

"Sometimes."

She gave him a look that clearly said she knew he wasn't telling the entire truth.

He sighed. "Look, I just…can we please hang out tonight?"

Her expression softened slightly. "Ok."

He smiled. "Great, where do you want to go?"

She shrugged, having never gone to many places other than school, home, and martial arts classes. "Where do you usually go?"

"Well, I was going to see a movie with Sam, but he's grounded."

"A movie sounds good."

"Awesome. Please tell me you don't want to see any of those stupid romance movies," he said, making a face.

She rolled her eyes. "Why would I want to?"

He made an over exaggerated noise of relief. "Thank God."

"What were you and your friend planning to see?"

"Did you hear about that new horror movie that came out?"

"I've already seen it."

"You sat through that?"

She nodded. "It wasn't that scary."

"It's supposed to be one of the scariest movies ever! Everyone's been saying there were people running out of the theater!"

She shrugged. "It could've been worse."

Clint leaned back in his seat and chuckled. "You're something else, Nat."

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry."

The train stopped and they got off at Times Square. Being accustomed to the sight, neither one of them paid much attention to the flashing lights or people in costumes offering to take pictures for money. They only time they had any interaction before reaching the movie theater was when a man dressed as Elmo "accidentally" touched Natasha's rear end and got a kick to the groin for it.

The two of them reached the theater and argued over what movie they should see, eventually settling on a somewhat decent action movie. Natasha bought a small bag of popcorn while Clint bought a large tub of popcorn, four bags of Sour Patch Kids, and a large soda. Natasha's eyes widened.

"What?" he asked with a mouthful of popcorn.

"How are you possibly going to eat all of that?"

"Don't underestimate my stomach."

"You're going to get sick."

"And you're going to be starving."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Trust me, I'll be fine."

"And so will I."

The movie started and they sat close enough to the back to make comments on the movie and the unrealistic fight scenes without being heard, but not close enough to be considered in the make out seats. True to his word, Clint had managed to finish his soda, all of his Sour Patch Kids, and was working on the rest of his popcorn.

"Told you," he whispered with a smirk.

Natasha rolled her eyes.

Clint looked down at Natasha's empty bag of popcorn. "How are you not starving?"

She shrugged.

The two of them watched the rest of the movie in compatible silence. Occasionally, Natasha would reach over and steal a few pieces of popcorn from Clint. He smiled every time she did. This was definitely one of the best dates he had ever been on.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he thought to himself. "Where the hell did that come from? This isn't a date! This is just two friends watching a movie! It's definitely not a date!"

Natasha reached over and grabbed another piece of popcorn, her arm accidentally brushing against his for a second. Clint tensed slightly and his heart raced.

"God dammit, Natasha! Stop it! You're not really helping out here!"

Unfortunately for Clint, Natasha couldn't read minds and stole another piece.

When the movie ended, they got up and threw out their snacks.

"Want me to walk you home?" Clint asked as they were leaving the theater.

"Why?"

"Just to make sure your safe and stuff, I guess."

Natasha rolled her eyes. "I think I can take care of myself."

"Fair enough. See you on Monday?"

"We're going to the same train station, dumbass."

Clint sighed. Right. Same train. Why did he always sound so stupid around her?

Natasha gave him a small, almost unnoticeable smile. "Come on."

They walked to the train station together, neither one talking much. The silence wasn't uncomfortable, though. It was like they didn't need words with each other. The two of them boarded their train. Clint checked the time on his phone and sighed. It was only nine. His dad would definitely not be home yet, and if he was…Clint didn't want to think about it. He sent a quick text to Barney.

'You still out?' It read. Barney had gotten the same idea over the years and, even though he was a year younger than Clint, would stay out just as late or even later.

'Yeah,' Barney texted back a couple minutes later. 'At Tanner's. Should be home by 11:30.'

The strain pulled into Natasha's stop and she got up.

"Hey, wait," Clint said, getting up as well.

"I have to go," Natasha responded, getting off the train.

Before Clint could think better of it, he jumped off as well right as the doors were closing.

Natasha turned around and raised an eyebrow.

"I just…um…" he stammered, unsure of what to say.

"You don't want to go home," she answered for him.

He sighed. "Yeah."

She nodded, seeming to understand. "I guess you can walk me home then."

Clint smiled. "Thanks."

The two of them walked to Natasha's apartment in silence, neither one of them wanting to bring up exactly why Clint was so reluctant to go home.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Sorry if this chapter's a little short. Wanted to get it in as quickly as possible. Be sure to leave reviews! They really do give me new ideas for this story and I love reading them! This chapter is loosely based off of the song "Vanilla Ice Cream" from "You've Got Mail."**

As they got closer to Natasha's apartment, Clint saw that it was only 9:30. He still had at least two hours before he could allow himself to go back home. He had to do something to get Natasha to spend more time with him. Without thinking, he grabbed her hand and started walking the other way.

"What the hell are you doing?" she asked, clearly annoyed.

"Come on, I know a really good ice cream place around here," he responded, steering her in the opposite direction of her apartment.

"I have to go home."

"Just send them a text and say you'll be out a little later tonight."

She sighed. "You know, I can break your arm in this position."

"You won't," he said with a smirk.

"And how do you know that?"

"If you were going to, you would've by now."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, we'll go get your stupid ice cream."

He smiled.

"Now let go of my hand."

"Oh, uh, right," he stammered, blushing slightly. "Sorry."

Unfortunately, Clint didn't actually know of any ice cream shops in the area and, out of panic, brought her into the first one he found. Thankfully, luck was on his side that night. The ice cream was cheap and surprisingly good.

"So, are you going to thank me now or later?" he asked Natasha with a grin.

The two of them sat at one of the tables. Clint bought himself a cup if chocolate ice cream with sprinkles. Natasha wanted to buy a cup of vanilla ice cream, but Clint insisted on paying for her, despite her protests.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Why would I thank you for dragging me here when I wanted to go home?"

"Well, for one thing, I just bought you ice cream."

"That I could've paid for myself."

"Can't you just let me do something nice for you?" he asked, slightly hurt.

She sighed. "You didn't have to buy me ice cream, Clint."

"I know."

"Then why did you?"

He smiled. "Because I wanted to."

She looked at him, confused. "You _wanted _to buy me ice cream?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"It's what friends do."

Natasha looked even more confused than before. Was this really what friends did?

Clint sighed. "Look, don't worry about it. If it really means that much to you, you can pay me back, ok?"

"Fine."

He smiled. "We should do this again sometime."

She shrugged. "Maybe."

"Why only maybe?"

"Well, for one thing, you're a pain in my ass," she said with a small smile.

Clint laughed, masking the slight offense he felt. Was she really that annoyed by him? "True."

"Besides, it's not like a new movie comes out every single week."

"It doesn't have to be a movie. We can go to the mall or do whatever girly stuff you like. I'm up for that," he joked.

She rolled her eyes. "Do you really think that's what I want to do?"

"Hey, I was just making suggestions.

"And, if that's all you can come up with, you're wasting my time."

He raised an eyebrow. "Sorry to offend, I guess."

"Why do you want to hang out with me so badly?"

"Because you're my friend and you're kind of cool and you're pretty funny sometimes."

Natasha couldn't help but give him a small smile, her cheeks a light shade of pink.

Clint grinned. "Besides, everyone else is pretty much terrified by you. Who else would you hang out with?"

She rolled her eyes. "Jackass."

"You're such a kind, sweet natured person, aren't you?"

"Only the best for someone like you."

Clint smiled. If only she knew.

After finishing their ice cream, Clint took the subway back to his stop and walked home. He opened the door to his apartment and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his father passed out on the couch, the smell of booze filling his nostrils. At least he wasn't awake. The last thing Clint needed was his father being awake.

He went into his room and found Barney lying on the bed with his laptop.

"Hey, Barney," he greeted as he changed into a t-shirt and boxers to sleep in.

"Hey," his brother said back, not looking away from the computer screen.

"How was Tanner's?"

"It was fine."

"Did you get back before Dad did?"

"No, he was on the couch when I got here."

Clint nodded, getting into his bed. "When did you get back?"

"About a half hour ago," Barney responded. "Where'd you go?"

"Went to see a movie."

"By yourself?"

"No, I went with Natasha."

Barney sighed in frustration as a page was taking longer to load. "So it was a date?"

Clint shook his head. "No, it was just a friend thing."

"What'd you see?"

"_Last Man Standing_."

"How was it?"

"Crap."

"Really? I heard it was supposed to be really good."

"Not if you actually know how to fight people, 'cause then, as Nat put it, 'it's pathetically unrealistic. Have these people even seen an actual fight before?'" he said with a small chuckle.

Barney smiled, glad to see that his brother was happy. It wasn't as often as he would have liked. "She had fun."

He nodded. "Yeah, she did. At least, I think so. She's pretty sarcastic most of the time so it's kind of hard to tell."

"How much longer do you have detention for?"

"Two more weeks."

"You still gonna see her after that?"

"Probably."

They immediately went silent when they heard a faint groan coming from the living room. The two boys tensed and looked at each other with fear in their eyes. Luckily, their father simply rolled over on the couch and went back to sleep.

"We should probably go to bed," Clint said quietly.

Barney nodded in agreement.

The two brothers got in bed and went to sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I know the last chapter was a little short, so I'm going to try to make this one a little longer. Hopefully, you like it. I know what's going to happen with this story, I just don't know how. If you have any suggestions, let me know!**

Natasha was lying on her bed, thinking about the time she spent with Clint. Something was different about him. Sure, he was always nice to her, but he was never _that_ nice. He never offered to buy her anything or take her anywhere. Sure, he had offered to hand out with her outside of school before, but never had it been so spontaneous. She knew it wasn't planned and he was definitely thinking on his feet, but it was still strange, even for him.

She sighed, thinking about how she acted towards him. Clint was always nice to her. He listened to her when she spoke and always offered to spend time with her when she was alone. Judging from previous experience, she knew he wasn't doing all of these things just because he thought she would sleep with him or something like that. He talked to her and did all of these things for her because he genuinely wanted to. And how did she repay him? She constantly pushed him away and said hurtful things to him. She had no idea why he would even want to speak to her.

But maybe he understood. Maybe he realized that she constantly kept her guard up for a reason. Maybe he knew that nobody pushed everybody away without a reason. Maybe he was broken too.

Clint woke up the next morning and saw that his brother's bed was empty. He must have slept in. He checked the time on his alarm clock and saw that it was past noon. Crap, he did sleep in. He got out of bed and took a quick shower before putting on shorts and a t-shirt. The weather was getting nicer and he wanted to go for a walk. He grabbed his phone and his slingshot and climbed down the fire escape.

Looking around, Clint found himself wishing that he didn't live in a city. Everything moved too fast. There was no time to sit back and enjoy anything. There was no open space. He got on the subway and took it to Grand Central. He got off and walked to Central Park. He smiled to himself. This was much better. It was a nice, sunny afternoon and the weather was getting warmer so the park was a bit crowded. Clint ducked behind a couple of the trees before climbing one of the taller ones. He always had a love for heights.

He didn't now when he dozed off or for how long, but the next thing he knew, he heard a voice calling his name.

"Barton?" the voice asked.

Clint started to wake up, but didn't open his eyes. He could tell from the voice that it came from a female, but he was not in the state of mind to figure out much else.

"Barton," the voice said again, louder than before. Hang on…Clint knew that voice…

Natasha let out an annoyed sigh and chucked a small pebble at him. The pebble hit him square in the face. Clint's eyes shot open, surprised. He scrambled on the tree limb for a few seconds before regaining his balance and Natasha took a moment to pride herself on her aim.

"What the hell was that for?" Clint called down to her.

"What the hell are you doing in a tree?" she shot back.

"You don't have to scream at me, you know."

"Then get down here so you can hear me."

He grinned and shook his head, turning into the stubborn child he had a tendency to be. "Nope."

She rolled her eyes. "Get down here."

"Why should I?"

"So we can talk."

"We're talking right now."

"You're the one that didn't want me to scream at you."

"Then why don't you come up here?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes, which earned a smirk from Clint. He hardly ever saw Natasha show any sort of emotion to anyone and he loved that he was able to get under her skin.

"I'm not climbing up a tree."

"Well I'm not coming down."

"Well I need to talk to you."

"Then you're going to have to climb."

Natasha gave him one final glare before reluctantly climbing up the tree. Clint watched her climb with amazement. She was quick and agile and climbed up almost as easily as he did. Within a few seconds, she was sitting next to him on the tree limb.

"You know we're not allowed to be up here, right?" she asked, obviously annoyed at him.

He grinned. "Since when have I ever cared about what's allowed?"

"Careful," she said, unable to stop a small smile from appearing. "You're starting to sound like Stark."

He laughed. "Trust me, I'm nowhere near as bad as Stark. So what did you want to talk about?"

Natasha lost her smile and looked away. If Clint didn't know Natasha, he would have said she almost looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry about last night," she said quietly.

"What are you talking about? I had a great time."

"I know, but I was kind of a bitch to you."

Ok, that was kind of true, but it was clear that Natasha had already beaten herself up about it enough and didn't need anymore of it from Clint. "No, you weren't."

"Don't lie to me."

"Ok, you were a little bit, but it's ok. I've had worse."

"I'm still sorry."

"And I forgive you."

She nodded, appearing to feel much calmer.

"So…we're cool?" he asked.

She nodded. "I guess so."

He smiled. "Awesome."

The two of them sat in silence for a while, neither one of them knowing what to say. Finally, Natasha spoke.

"What are you doing here, anyway?"

Clint shrugged. "Just wanted some fresh air. What about you?"

"Same, I guess."

He smiled to himself. Normally, he preferred to be alone when he went for walks or went to the park, but it was nice having Natasha around. However, that moment was soon over.

"Can we get down now?"

Clint grinned, his immature side showing again. "You can, but I think I'll stay up here for a while."

She nodded and swung her legs over the branch, getting a good grip onto the one below it. "Try not to kill yourself getting down."

He laughed and watched her go.

Clint stayed up in the tree for another hour or so before finally climbing down. As he walked back to the train station, he thought about his relationship with Natasha. He wasn't even sure if he should call it that since Natasha didn't do relationships. It was like they were friends, but not. There were times where they acted like they've known each other their entire lives and there were times where they acted like complete strangers. He wasn't sure what he was to her. Either way, he was happy that she didn't push him away completely. There was something about her that made him feel comfortable. It was like he could tell her anything he wanted and she wouldn't treat him any differently for it.

His thoughts were interrupted by his phone vibrating. He took it out of his pocket and saw that he had a text.

'Hey, it's Tony. Need you to come over ASAP. It's about the plan.'

Clint read the text, extremely confused. 'How the hell did you get my number?' he replied.

'My dad runs Stark Enterprises! It's the biggest technology company in the world! It wasn't exactly difficult to get your phone number! Now get your ass over to the tower!'

'Or you could just tell me now.'

'It's easier to explain in person. Now come on. Everybody else is coming.'

Clint sighed and got off of the subway a few stops early. He walked over to Stark Tower. Inside was a hallway with an elevator on the other side. He looked around, confused.

"Mr. Stark and the others are in the communal lounge on floor 23," a British voice said, making Clint jump.

"Terribly sorry to startle you, Mr. Barton."

"I, um…it's ok, I guess," he said, looking around for where the voice came from. After a few seconds, he decided to just drop it. This was Tony Stark's house. He shouldn't have expected any less. He took the elevator up to floor 23 and found Tony lying down on one of the couches. Steve was sitting in one of the chairs and Bruce was sitting on the carpeted floor.

"Barton's here," Tony said with a small grin. "Now we're just waiting on Hercules and Nat."

"She doesn't like being called Nat," Clint said as he sat down on the loveseat. He didn't like Tony that much, but he didn't think the kid deserved a broken nose.

He laughed. "Does she prefer 'Clint's girlfriend?'"

Clint sighed. Tony might still get a broken nose, just from a different person. "No. She likes 'Natasha.'"

"Fine. We're still waiting on Hercules and Natasha."

"What's all of this about?"

"I'll tell you when everyone gets here."

"This couldn't wait until Monday because…?"

"Because I'm a genius and I needed to tell you now."

Bruce rolled his eyes.

A few minutes later, Natasha and Thor came up the elevator together.

Tony grinned. "Nice to see you."

"What the hell do you want?" Natasha asked, getting straight to the point.

"Such temper from one so beautiful."

She rolled her eyes and Clint marveled her patience. He half-expected her to punch him after that.

"What is it you request of us?" Thor asked.

"Sit down and I'll tell you."

Natasha sat on the other side of the loveseat, ignoring the smirk Tony was flashing at her. Thor sat on the other side of the couch.

"Why are we here?" Natasha asked, growing impatient.

"Well, a couple days ago, I talked to Loki," Tony said, slouching in his chair. "He knows he has the upper hand. He's planning something, but I don't know what and there's no way in hell he's going to tell Thor what it is. He's a pain in the ass, but he's not stupid."

"And you couldn't have told us this a couple of days ago?" Steve asked.

"I was going to, but I figured we could come up with something first."

"We have the plan Natasha came up with," Clint suggested.

"That involves knowing what he's gonna do."

"Then what do you suggest? You're the genius after all," Natasha said sarcastically.

"I know, which is why I have a genius plan."

"As genius as the last one?"

"Even better."

"Great."

"So here's the plan. When Crazy Boy's not home, you check his room," he said to Thor. "See if you can find anything that would give us an idea of what he's got planned. Then we find out where and when. I'll hack the security camera so he can't do anything with it. We catch him in the act and we'll have Red as backup in case he tried anything funny. Sound good?"

Everyone looked at each other for a moment, thinking it over.

"I do not feel comfortable invading my brother's privacy," Thor finally said.

"It's not invading his privacy if it's to help us out," Tony insisted. "It's for the greater good."

"And if Thor doesn't find anything?" Natasha asked.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Now who wants lunch?"

Bruce shrugged. "I could go for some food."

The others agreed. Within twenty minutes, three boxes of pizza arrived. Tony made sure to order extra. He's seen the way Thor eats. Bored and left with little to say, he put on _Mission Impossible_ and quickly realized how bad of an idea it was. Bruce had to constantly explain to Steve and Thor all of the technology used in the movie and Clint and Natasha spent the entire time arguing over the inaccuracies. Tony couldn't hear a goddamn thing.

"This is the last time I'm watching a movie with you guys," he grumbled.

Clint shrugged and leaned back onto the loveseat. Sometime during the movie, Natasha decided to lie down and draped her legs across his lap. He focused intently on the movie, trying to think about anything else. The last thing he needed was an…embarrassing situation because of that innocent gesture. Besides, Natasha was growing more comfortable around him. He should be happy about it.

"What are those red lines?" Thor asked as he took a fifth slice of pizza.

"They're called lasers. They have to avoid touching them or they'll set off an alarm," Bruce explained.

"What happens if the set off an alarm?" Steve asked, confused.

"Security will come."

"But the guy's gonna be totally fine because the security's shit," Clint said, finishing off his second slice of pizza.

"The security's not shit, the actors are just shit at fighting," Natasha argued.

"Will you two shut up? This is an awesome movie!" Tony snapped, not taking his eyes off the screen.

Both of them rolled their eyes, but had to admit it was kind of fun. Maybe they should do this again sometime.

**A/N: Hey, guys! Hope you liked this chapter! I tried to make it longer and I really wanted to get more of the interaction between all of the Avengers. Be sure to leave reviews and suggestions!**


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